Windows 8 discussion

I think my favorite thing is the new task manager look! I would avoid this OS on my desktop at all cost, but would welcome it on a tablet down the line.

I have been using Win8 since Release Preview was available and in the short period of time, have come to really enjoy using the product.

This was not the case on day one. I was unimpressed with MS that they were forcing me to change to Metro. I have a Apple iPad, Android phone, Windows 7 Notebook and now MS has decided to change the rules.

I dual installed Win8 on my Win7 HP notebook with the intention to test Win 8, and use Win7 for everyday use.

Day one, hour one, I was ready to uninstall Win8 and move back to Win7, jump into the Apple corral and move on. Although the drivers installed perfectly there was too much change. It took me a short while to get my head around Win8 and change the Metro Tiles to reflect my favorite apps.

The short of it is, Windows 8 grows on you. By mid day I had configured Win8 the way that works for me and it works. Quicker than Win 7 and to be honest easier. Will everyone feel the same, probably not. MS do some marketing and either give users the option to chose Desktop, or make the learning curve easier for the average user. My wife had one look at the Metro screen and decided to boycott all Windows products. This lasted a couple of days and she has calmed down.

I will let you know how things pan out.

I had a similar experience to Brett... I have two monitors and some of the Metro stuff requires you to put the mouse against the edge of the screen. For me this was the edge that borders the other screen and it was hard to use. Maybe this can be changed.

I also miss the start button, and found myself using the start key on my keyboard a lot.

I'll give it some more time, I like how the Metro screen is customizable and looks like it could be pretty useful once I get used to it.

I appreciate MS finally realizing they had to change their interface for tablets but not leaving option to turn it off for desktop is just not smart. I will not be switching, 7 works really well for me and what they will be asking for upgrade will not be reasonable. Take a page from Apple's book and offer cheap OS upgrade and I may reconsider...

I have used the latest release as my main work computer for a week now and have reverted back to Windows 7. Here are a couple of points regarding my experiences using Windows 8 on a desktop PC.

• Metro and the standard desktop are currently 2 different eco-systems with gaps in their interaction. For example it is possible to show notifications when you lock the screen regarding how many unread emails you have. Sounds good doesn't it? Well if you use Outlook 2010 as your desktop mail client as I do, the notification for unread mail is not aware of that. It does not register that you have read your mails in Outlook 2010, only unread mail in the Metro Mail application. Not a big deal - why don't I just use the Metro mail application instead? Well, it can't send notifications to the desktop. In other words the only way to know if a mail has arrived is by keeping the Metro mail application open on one monitor taking up at least 1/5 of the screen if you anchor it to one side. This way you can see if a mail has arrived and still work using the desktop but if I was running Outlook 2010 then I can see if a mail arrives because a little envelope appears in my system tray. Thats a very small icon compared to keeping an application open taking up screen space. Result - I turned the mail notifications off and lost a cool feature of the OS. Maybe this will work differently in the official release but it doesn't right now. For now its half thought out and a bit crap. Metro applications should be able to send notifications to the desktop.

• The Start Menu/Button. To make up for the lack of a start button I have the control panel pinned to the desktop taskbar as well as an explorer shortcut. This gets me to my system settings and libraries quickly where I used to use the start button. Using the actual Start screen is "interesting". I usually end up using it just to search. ie Hot corner to activate the Start screen then type what I want. Apart from that the current batch of Metro applications aren't very interesting and to be honest they take up so much screen for what they do, they just seem like a waste. Full screen ugly splash screens steal focus when you open an application - they are so hideous and only offer basic functionality where my desktop applications have all the features I need and more. So on a desktop the massive Start screen is just a full screen search box for the sake of losing the start button so I learn to use my computer the new way. Not impressed to be honest.

Microsoft have got their work cut out making Metro work on the desktop. I think they should go back to the drawing board and stick the start button back for desktop users which I believe they will do for Windows 9 if not before. Apple have their dashboard and launchpad on OSX which mimicks iOS functionality but they still have the Dock. Launchpad doesn't appear every time you turn the Mac on. Microsoft really need to tone down the act of forcing Metro down our throats. Let people use it for their touchscreens and tablets (there will be alot of tablets and touchscreens sold so there will be plenty of people using it) but give the option to use Windows 8 "normally" or risk companies waiting for the next release before they upgrade again.

How are game and modding capabilities on Windows 8, I ask because things like Minecraft and just having a fun time on Grand Theft Auto require these things. I'm not at all sure on anything of Windows 8.

windows 8 will be my first 64-bit os I upgrade to.

I will install it to replace the win7 pro on my +2yo laptop

Not sure about gaming performance but the desktop side of the OS is identical except the odd menu moved about and no start button. ie hit the windows key+R and type regedit, does the same thing. No difference. Metro games probably won't let you mod and mess about with them but the standard PC games should be business as usual. Didn't see anything to suggest otherwise.

I really like it, and that was a surprise. I had read all the bad opinions on the metro interface but after a power supply failure and much smoke I had to rebuild and reinstall so I tried the preview. It did take a couple hours to get used to but was surprisingly intuitive. In short order I was able to do what I normally do.

the down side is the apps. I dont rarely use news streams etc on my desktop and wont on my start screen but they were easy to clear out The video app was a but rubish with the seek bar and controls in the middle of the screen but mp classic hc solved that problem. I did like the email app.

As for the start menu itself I like it as its a lot easier to sort, grouping icons as I wish, reminds me a little of win 3.1 with its icons and folders in a way kicked into the 21st century. As NASA goes back to Apollo so windows go back to 3.1 lol.

So over all I like it, the apps could be better and I do miss minimizing and non full screen apps but I get that on the desktop screen with "normal" programs so it just took some getting used to. I love the faster boot and shutdown too.

Since it's release, I've been running windows 8 on vm, so I'm yet to fully enjoy its full benefits. I don't plan to buy a windows 8 desktop, so I have to wait for the windows 8 tablet.

I am surpised how fast it works on my old Athlon X2 4850 (AM2, 45Watt , 2.5GHz)
But I hope some improvements will be made to make it more desktop oriented, and stop Checkdisk from running after each time I use 8 on my dual boot (XP SP3) system.

I've installed the release Preview on a Samsung Series 7 Slate and on a HP TouchSmart convertible laptop. Both installs were painless and all hardware was properly detected although I still needed to download AMD drivers for the 5450 dedicated graphics in the HP. Install Firefox, Chrome and Office 2010 (my standard additions on all PCs) and all are functioning correctly as is the Zune software (I have a Nokia Lumia 900 phone). I also found several apps that I'm finding useful including Kindle app, Tom's Hardware app and Rowi Twitter app. Finding that as I use these PCs I'm adapting to the new interface and many things are easier/faster then Win 7 although I also added shortcuts for system shutdown and restart on the Start Screen as I did find the "hidden" controls for these to be somewhat annoying.
I haven't tried this on a desktop yet although much of the usage on the HP are as a standard laptop with keyboard and mouse and almost all usage with the Samsung Slate is as a tablet although I occasionally use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with this. I also added the Preview Media Center feature on both since I use a Win 7 All-in-One with a Ceton cable card tuner as my DVR and wanted to see if I could watch that content on the Win 8 devices (yes in many cases - determined mostly by PlaySure DRM in Win 7 Media Center) pretty much if I can transfer a recoded show to a Win 7 PC and watch it I can do the same on the Win 8 ones.

I down loaded W8 beta - hated it. I thought Metro was the stupidest thing I ever saw so I removed the partition and went back to 7. I've since down loaded the latest preview and have been using it since it was first released. I'm now starting to get use to it and like it over 7. Basically, Metro is your start button. You can easily stay on the normal desktop or toggle back and forth. I only used 7's start button for the run command. I can easily do that now while in Metro - just start typing. All of my games and applications like Office are either on my desktop or in the task bar- just like it was in 7. What's the big deal? There are many reasons to upgrade to 8 when it's fully released. It's just a matter of getting use to it like anything new. MS is trying to bridge the gap between the PC and Smart Phone. I find it a good fit between the two. I for one will be buying the new OS like I did for every other major OS since the first release of WINDOWS 95!

it's Metro

My first visual impression of Windows 8 is it's too plain and lacks sophistication. Tile layout is too basic and kinda dull. I've read and heard that Windows 8 is a major change from your typical windows. It will take some retraining... not intuitive. I am hesistant on adopting it right now. Happy with Windows 7

Around 450 million copies sold of windows 7, I think Microsoft must work hard to place windows8 on their PC's too. Although everyone is waiting for this operating system, but I am pretty happy with windows 7 currently running on my PC. I won't install windows 8 unless there are much powerful tools in this much awaited OS.

Windows8 definitely has a learning curve. I think it will grow on me over time

To be honest, this is the first version of Windows that didn't get me excited one bit. I hope that the final release will change my perception but based on my experiences with the developer preview and the consumer review (yes, I have actually downloaded them and installed them on my computer), I don't think I will want to run it on my productive laptop (spare laptop maybe). I have the following opinions about Windows 8:
1) The interface is way too childish and unprofessional, I tried to like it but I really can't.
2) Windows 8 really kills the mouse, the mouse is supposedly a very precise input tool but Windows 8 completely takes it away and gives me a dumb-down interface that is supposed to be used with fingers.
3) Unproductive switching between Desktop mode and start menu mode, which really hurt my workflow.
Don't get me wrong, W8 is good for entertainment PC. I do have an HTPC and would love to install W8 on it but maybe only if I get W8 for free. I really don't feel like I want to pay 200 much less 100 for the most boring UI ever released since Windows 3.1.